Boston College Creates Jewish Studies Minor

September 22, 2005

Source: The Boston Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/09/22/bc_adds_minor_in_jewish_studies/

On September 22, 2005 The Boston Globe reported, "Boston College, a Jesuit university with a student body that is overwhelmingly Christian, is launching a program that will allow students to minor in Jewish studies, a rarity in Catholic higher education. Although the first student who intends to sign up is Jewish, professors at BC say they expect that the majority of the students and many of the teachers in the new Jewish Studies Program will be Christian. About 70 percent of BC's 8,900 undergraduates identify themselves as Catholic; about 1 percent say they are Jewish... Although many Catholic universities have endowed chairs in Jewish studies and academic centers that study Jewish-Catholic relations, Boston College officials believe the university is one of the first Catholic universities to start a minor in Jewish studies... Boston College already offers other ethnic studies programs, including Asian studies, Black studies, Irish studies, Latin American studies, and Middle Eastern and Islamic studies."